Nothing's Real and Nothing Matters
by Kayra909
Summary: Nothing's real and nothing matters to me, that's what Sasuke believed. Everyone can change, they just need a push sometimes, that's what Izumi believed. Can she change him? Change his view? Maybe. SasukeOC
1. Hospital

K9: Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My new, shiny, beautiful story is out! This comtinues from a KakashiOC fic I finished just a week ago, so if you want to understand this one better, you might wanna read the other one. Well, enjoy! (Parings are SasukeOC and NarutoSakura.) By the way-this is more of a prologue than an actual chapter.

Disclaimer: I don't own any part of Naruto. That belongs to some dude.

1

Hospital

Her lungs felt like they were about to explode. She couldn't take the pollen anymore. People rushed to her when she collapsed in front of the hospital. That was a day before the battle started...

A day after, the hospital was jam-packed with all kinds of people. She lay there for about a week or two until it got even worse. She heard the doctors say she was going into "critical condition". They numbed her with some weird potion and got a girl with pink hair to take the pollen out of her lungs. The next day, she was released into the hospital to find her sister waiting there for her.

"Nee-san!" she yelled as she rushed into her sister's arms.

"Oh my god, I was so worried!" Saki said, hugging her back.

"Who is that?" asked a gray-haired man.

"My sister," Saki said with a wide grin.

"You're old," she said.

"What did you say?" asked the old man with gritted teeth.

"He's only 29 Izumi," Saki said with a chuckle.

Izumi frowned, then walked around him a couple times and finally inspected his hair by twisting it with her fingers.

"Congrats, sis!" she says with a devious grin.

"What?" asks Saki.

"Congrats on finally getting a man,"

"How did you know?" asked Kakashi.

"I told you to never use that!" hissed Saki.

"But what use is a useful technique that isn't used?" said Izumi, teasing.

"What technique?" asked Naruto, stepping into the conversation.

"I can read feelings, and other stuff, by reading the patterns in a person's chakra, sort of like auras,"

"Woah,"

"Yep!"

"Oh, Izumi?" said Saki.

"Yeah?"

"That's your nephew,"

"Wha-How-When-Where-Who?" she managed to stutter out.

"Sensei, Yondaime,"

"How-When-Wha?" stuttered Izumi. Saki laughed at her sister's reaction. Izumi walked up to her nephew and measured herself next to him, and let out an exasperated sigh when she saw that she was a head shorter than him. Suddenly Izumi felt a hand near her neck, touching a lock of her hair. Her fast reflexes made her turn around quickly and she put the guy into a pin. Her nephew and the guy in the pin both gasped inward. It had been a long time since he had been caught off guard like that.

Izumi kept him in the pin until her nephew told her to let go. The guy who stood one and a half heads above her had dark blue hair with a black uniform and his forehead protector actually on his forehead. His eyes were as black as coal, pupils not to be seen. When she looked into his eyes, she felt like she falling into a dark abyss. Only when he got up was she woken up from her strange trance.

"Why were you touching my hair?" she immediately asked, drawing attention from her to the black-eyed guy.

"Just wondering how the hell you guys could be sisters," he said coldly.

Izumi flinched at this slightly and then said, "Well, you see, when two people love each other..."

Saki put her hand over Izumi's mouth, "She dyed her hair." To Izumi's ear Saki whispered, "Be careful with him, he's dangerous."

"I know, he's an Uchiha," she smirked. She slowly walked up to him and reached her hand up to her head, measuring her height to his. She groaned when she saw she was a head and a **half** shorter than him. "I'm even shorter than my nephew's best friend."

"What?" her nephew shouted.

"I'm not his best friend, and my name's Sasuke,"

"Naruto," said her nephew, reaching out his hand.

Izumi smiled from ear to ear and shook his hand and said, "Izumi."

"He's not my friend by the way," said Naruto with a small frown.

Izumi let out a small laugh as she turned around, "Sure."

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The whole group plus the pink girl who had healed Izumi went to the Ramen Bar to celebrate the winning of the battle-sort of-and the Izumi becoming Hokage.

"Yay!!! Ramen!" shouted Naruto.

"Jeez, Naruto calm down," said the girl Izumi had come to know as Sakura. Sasuke didn't say anything.

Soon, everyone had devoured at least two bowls of ramen, some even more.

"Do you like ramen?" asked Naruto.

"I don't hate it," Izumi said with a small smile. She sighed, "I'm gonna have to train tomorrow to get all this fat off."

"Wanna come with me?" asked Naruto happily.

"Sure,"

K9: So, do ya like it?! PLEASE review, thank ya!


	2. Rage

K9: My chapters are becoming short! Ahh! JK Hope you guys didn't wait too long for this, I sorta had a writer's block at some parts. Thank you to all the people who reviewed, which is only two -.-;

2

Rage

The next day, she ran quickly to the small patch of clear land in the over-extensive forest around Konoha. As she hopped from one building to the next, she saw a small black dot but was too late to stop. So she crashed into the person. As she opened her eyes, they showed her the person she least wanted to see right now. Black bangs stroked her face as he lifted his face up, pushing himself up to get a good look at the person he was lying on top of. Black eyes met hers, and once again she fell into that abyss. The tiniest of blushes appeared on both of their faces. Then, Izumi pushed Sasuke off by kicking him in the stomach. She got up.

"What the hell was that?" she asked him fiercely.

"I would ask you the same thing," he said in his emotion-less voice.

"I was just innocently making my way to train with my cousin and then someone knocked me over,"

Sasuke grumbled something under his breath after this.

"Can't top that can you?" Izumi triumphantly said and carried on.

She finally arrived at her destination. Birds chirped on aimlessly, she could even hear the trees and flowers swaying in the wind. Izumi breathed in the chilly autumn air and felt a strange feeling wash over her, a refreshing feeling.

"Sorry I was late!" she screamed as she jumped down from a tree.

"You remind me of Kakashi," Naruto sighed.

"That old man! No way!"

Naruto started laughing at the expression on his aunt's face.

"What?"

"Nothing," Naruto said, still laughing.

"So let's train,"

"So, I guess we're gonna fight,"

"Yep,"

Izumi lowered her hips and bent her legs, lowering her arms and slightly bending them. Suddenly, many Naruto's were around her and they started attacking all at the same time. She twisted her hands so that they were both facing away from her and then brought them together into a clap. From the few pines around her, sharp pine needles flew at the many replications of Naruto. Smoke filled the little clearing and when she could finally see, Naruto's replications were all gone. Izumi quickly hurried over to his side, because he seemed very hurt.

"Are you okay, Naruto?"

"Yeah, okay enough to do **this**." Naruto punched her in the stomach, hard. Blood spilled out of her mouth. A wolfish grin spread across her face.

"That's more like it!" she screamed. A kick to the stomach from Izumi sent Naruto flying. He hit a nearby tree, collapsed, and got back up again. A small longing filled her, but she kept it suppressed. Nausea sailed over her, making her fall down.

"Ha ha! I'm winning!" said Naruto triumphantly.

"Get the hell away from me," Izumi shouted at him.

"Huh?"

"Get away, before-" It finally took her over. All she wanted now was to kill.

"If this is what you people call training, then no wonder you suck so much," said a voice in the shadow.

"Izumi, what's wrong?" Naruto asked her, completely ignoring Sasuke. Izumi collapsed even more into the ground. Then, suddenly, she got up on her knees and howled at the sky like a wolf would at the moon. When she finally stopped howling, she looked straight at Sasuke.

A murderous grin came over her face. She lunged at Sasuke suddenly. Sasuke dodged it easily and landed on a grassy patch. Suddenly, the grass shot up in spikes, piercing him in multiple places , and scratching him in many more. He hadn't thought he'd need the Sharingan in a battle against **her**, but now he decided to use it, just in case. Izumi rushed at him, and once again he easily dodged it. He landed near a tree, and it wrapped its limbs around his body. 'She performs the techniques too fast!' he thought. While he was trapped, Izumi ran at him and prepared to punch him.

"No!" screamed Saki, holding Izumi back from Sasuke. "Stop it! Don't give in!"

"Shut up! What the hell do you know?" Izumi said harshly, trying to wiggle her way out of her sister's grasp. Izumi finally struggled her way out, and ran for Sasuke. As she was about to punch him, she noticed something. She softly touched his hair, holding onto it, she collapsed. "Black, you're hair's black."

"Yeah, so?" asked Sasuke in his confident voice.

**"Her** hair was black." A quick intake of breath was heard behind Izumi, from Saki.

"Izumi," whispered Saki. "Don't cry."

"I'm not crying," she said, wiping away her tears. The tree let go of Sasuke, as Sasuke let go of his Sharingan. He slowly walked away from the scene. He didn't need this kind of drama.

----------------------------------

He sat on the roof, staring blindly into some spot. She walked along the road when she saw him.

"Hey!" she yelled, jumping onto the roof. Izumi sat next to Sasuke.

"What do you want?" he asked gloomily.

"Just...to say, gomen,"

"Shouldn't have bothered, I don't care,"

"Why are you like that?"

"Like how?"

"'I don't care, and you can't make me' attitude,"

"Because, nothing's real and nothing matters,"

"Why do you think that?"

"I have my reasons,"

"Just because your family died, doesn't give you the right to act like everyone killed them,"

"I have no choice,"

"I don't act the way you do, I have a choice. You don't give yourself a choice," she screamed at him.

"Your whole family wasn't killed by your brother!"

"No, it was killed by my **sister**! Big dif!"

"What?"

"You heard me." 'Black hair, huh?' he thought.

"My hair's dark blue you know," he said. Izumi smiled a wide smile. She then got up from her sitting position on the roof.

"Everyone can be changed or can change by itself, even Itachi,"

"How do you know his name?"

"I have my ways," she said, turning around and smiling in a cat-like way. She jumped off the roof and said, "Bye!"

Sasuke was about to go after her and say something, but decided to recline and put his hands behind his head. A sudden calm coming over him, he wondered how exactly she knew all those things about him. How she knew his brother's name, how she knew his family died. But mostly, how she could be the way she was with that thing that came over her and her dead family. He wanted to know why she hadn't ended up the way he had.

K9: So, do you like it? Please review!


	3. Breakfast

3

Breakfast

She woke up that day feeling strangely sleepy. Getting up this early wasn't her thing, but that old man wanted her to come on a mission with his team. Izumi had gotten up an hour earlier than she had to, to make breakfast for her sister and the old man. A cool breeze came from the window near her bed. 'I swear I had left that closed,' she thought. Shaking her head clear of that thought, she bathed and put on her "uniform", so to speak. A green t-shirt reached about two inches above her belly-button, a light green fishnet underneath the shirt covered her mid-section. Then, she wrapped her thighs in pure white bandages semi-tightly, so that they wouldn't fall off or cut off her blood-flow. Afterwards, she slipped on her skirt, the same shade of dark green as the shirt, that reached all the way to her ankles. A long cut ran along the left side of the skirt, allowing greater flexibility. Then, she brushed her short light green hair and put on a white apron with a red heart on its front.

Izumi put a skillet on the stove and poured a small amount of sunflower oil into it. Then, she got out three eggs and some milk, cracked the eggs and poured the milk into the same bowl. She then whisked them together until they were perfectly combined. After the skillet heated up, she poured the mix into it. Izumi, after one side of the omelet was cooked, flipped it to the other side. Then, she put the omelet into a bento box, and put a tomato cut out into a heart on top of it. Into the other two sections, she put rice and two sticks of natto (I'm not exactly sure they're called sticks).

As she was about to rush out of the small apartment, she spotted something peculiar on her table. A small note lay there, waving a little in the cool morning breeze. Putting down the bento box, she lifted the note off the table. It read: 'Change of plans. Meet at the same meeting place, except at 5 instead of 7. ' Izumi laughed a bit at the face on the note, and then realized she was already 30 minutes late. She grabbed the box and rushed out of the window. Izumi jumped from roof to roof, window to window, until she reached a red bridge, where Kakashi's team was waiting.

Naruto stood there in a blue pajama with a night-hat that looked like a hippo. Sakura looked like she just survived a train wreck with her unbrushed hair and pink, crumpled nightdress. Then, appeared Sasuke, his hair was flying in all different directions and his crumpled uniform didn't help his appearance much either. His eyes were slightly dulled by his sleepiness, making them all the more mesmerizing. Sakura squealed at this.

"Sasuke-kun! You look so cute!" she said in a high-pitched squeal.

"Neh," he grunted. Izumi had to admit he was cute. 'Wait, wait, what? What are you thinking? This is the cold, emotion-less guy you hate! Or do I **really** hate him?' she thought, as a small blush went across her face. Her heart skipped a beat when she saw his innocent face.

"Kakashi's late **again**," Sasuke said in a monotonous tone. The other two groaned. Suddenly, a little paper flew out of Sasuke's pocket.

"Neh, Sasuke?"

"Hmm?"

"Were you planning on meeting someone in the 'Sakura garden'?"

"No, why?"

"Then what's this?" Izumi asked holding up the paper.

"Oh, that's probably just Kakashi's note," he said, looking away, somewhere toward the moon. Then, suddenly, everyone looked onto the same place, the note.

"Damn it!" shouted Naruto.

"Yay for the idiots of the year," Izumi said sarcastically. They rushed off together, reaching the garden in about 5 minutes. Kakashi stood there, waiting in a festive kimono.

"Heh, for the first time, I'm not the one late," he chuckled.

"Sensei, why are you wearing that?" asked Sakura.

"Come inside to find out," he said, pointing inside of the small temple in the middle of the garden. The group of four students and Kakashi entered the little temple, and were surprised by what they found there. Many ninjas sat in the rows of seats in the church, all dressed up for some reason.

"Oh, no," Izumi said.

"What?" asked Kakashi.

"Don't tell me that-you and-my sister are..."

"Yeah,"

"No! I shall be a sister to an old man!" she said in a dramatic voice. Everyone started laughing.

"Kids! Come here!" shouted an old woman all the way across the church. They quickly made their way over there, so as to not attract any more attention. The woman pushed them into the male and female changing rooms. Some of the other young kunoichi were already almost dressed in there. Izumi quickly undressed, but when she asked the lady for her kimono, the lady answered like this:

"Well, your sister felt it necessary for you to have a male kimono"-Izumi smiled at this-"and we forgot to get it out of the men's changing room, so you'll have to get it from there."

"But, I already gave my clothes and you said you locked them up or something,"

"Yes, so you will have to go to their changing room like this,"

"What?!" she screamed. A couple of the girls stood there, snickering. "Why can't I take my clothes back?"

"Because the lock on the locks is made for unpickability (I don't think that's a word) and they lock until the ceremony is over,"

"Well that's stupid!"

"Hey, I didn't design the place,"

Izumi groaned and asked, "What locker and row?"

"Row B, locker 6." Izumi groaned in frustration once again and carefully made her way to the other side of the building, avoiding any men coming from the changing room. When she finally got there, she stood there for about half a minute, just there. Then, she snapped out of her fearful mesmerized state and swallowed. She performed a technique that let her become as small as a fly for a certain amount of time (only 2 minutes for her). A small shudder spread through her whole body as she focused all of her chakra into her feet. Sprinting up the wall, she realized just how hard this will be. She was out of breath by the time she got up there. Slowing down to a walk, she made her way across the ceiling and to row B.

'Just my luck,' she thought as she saw the people that row contained. Sasuke and Naruto stood there, with a guy with spiky hair tied up in a pony-tail and a dog-looking guy that had a huge dog next to him. The dog took up most of the row. She waited for them to leave, but they stood there, just talking about something. Her time was running out, so she decided to start climbing back toward the exit. Suddenly, a huge bark reached her ears and she realized she was growing in size. Izumi suddenly lost the chakra control out of sheer panic and fell tumbling to the ground. She hit her tail-bone and howled out in pain. The four boys stared at her in surprise and the dog rushed over to protect its owner. She felt naked even though her bra, underwear, and bandages were still on.

"What the-?" asked the dog one.

"Oba-san?" asked Naruto, blushing.

"Huh?" asked the spike-haired one, as if just noticing something happened. Sasuke just sighed.

"Why were you spying on us?" asked Sasuke.

"I wasn't," said Izumi defensively, while Naruto helped her up.

"Then what were you doing here?" asked the dog one, blushing slightly.

"I came here to get my kimono,"

"Why do such a bothersome thing?" asked Spikey.

"Why would one even be here?" asked Dog-boy.

"I wear male kimonos because the girl ones are too uncomfortable,"

The boys started laughing, except Sasuke of course.

"What?" she growled at them. "I grew up in a society in which women rule, and in **that** society, there is no feminine or masculine. There's just what you like better."

"A female society, don't make me laugh," said Spikey. Izumi went up to him, and slapped him on his face, hard. Then, she slowly made her way to locker 6 and opened it. She quickly put the white top on and the black pants over it. Then, she put a decorated pink and green open top on top of that, which matched her green hair and light pink eyes. Izumi did this with such agility and accuracy, the guys couldn't help but stare.

"Let the wedding begin," she said.


	4. Wedding

4

Wedding

Izumi walked out of the men's changing room with her arms wrapped around Naruto and Sasuke. Naruto was talking about how weird it would be to have Kakashi as his step-dad and Sasuke looked like he **really** didn't want to be there. She thought she saw a blush, but it might've just been her imagination. Probably was. It was. Izumi convinced herself of that. Sasuke didn't blush, he was emotion-less. Even if he did show emotion, it would be nowhere close to blushing. Izumi looked down, and swallowed. The palm of the arm that was around Sasuke's neck started to sweat as he and Naruto carried her out into the main room. She could hear all the girls surrounding her on every side talking about her. Sometimes she just wanted to burn all their pretty little hair-do's and crush their brains corrupted by ideas of feminineness.

Izumi looked at all of them in such disgust, they seemed scared when she looked at them. Sakura ran up to them and started talking to Sasuke. Izumi chose to ignore her. Sakura, ah, Sakura. She was the one she hated the most, next to that blond one. She felt her anger rise for some reason, the blood pumped dangerously fast in her head. Beat...beat..beat, beat,beat,beat-beat-beatbeat. Her hands clenched into fists, her right one (on Sasuke's shoulder) close enough to punch Sakura with enough force to give her a bruise on that pretty face of hers. But she sustained herself, plus, Sakura's teammates would probably be mad at her. Sasuke seemed to have explained why he was carrying Izumi, because soon, they had stopped and Sakura was behind her, healing Izumi's tail-bone.

Izumi unwrapped her arms from around the boys' necks. A part of her wanted to punch her, and the other wanted to thank her.

"Thank you," she said, trying to make it as real as she could.

"No prob," said Sakura, cheerfully. Anger, jealousy. Those were the two feelings she had at the moment. Oh, and of course, there was also relief.

"Hiding won't help," Izumi said in a firm voice, channeling all the meaning she could into those three words. Sakura looked clueless, as did almost everyone else. Sasuke looked at her as if she were an antique statue, something to be examined and analyzed. He seemed to be the only one here who understood what she meant. She walked away from the small hall, leaving the air full of wondering. Izumi, she was headstrong. She would be determined, stubborn, no matter what. Sasuke could see that. She reminded him of...Naruto, in a female form without the cheerfulness, but instead, with a strange, hyper calmness and...anger. Sasuke realized at that point, she was just as angry as he was, but she just hid it well. A little too well. But they weren't mad at the same things, he was mad at his brother and she...she was mad at...he wasn't sure. She was just a big paradox, he realized. Something just changed in him, once she came into his life, just a day ago, she started to affect him. And now, he was changing, changing in a way he couldn't describe. A way that felt good to him.

A small inkling of guilt fell into Izumi's heart, weighing it down. She wasn't quite sure what the guilt was about, but it was there, no matter how much she tried to deny it. Izumi stopped her fast-paced walk and turned around. 'I'm acting like I hate every one of them,' she thought. But in truth, she was just jealous. She slid on the wall until she reached the ground. And she just sat there. Just there. People looked at her with sympathy, or maybe it was hatred, but did nothing. Suddenly, someone stopped in front of her. She saw two pairs of black sandals and the edges of an orange kimono along with a dark blue one. Izumi looked up to see the smiling face of Naruto and cold, yet caring, face of Sasuke. They both held out a hand. She took both hands and they pulled her up. She staggered a little bit, but then stood up straight. She suddenly couldn't help but smile. She had only known the two boys for a day, and yet, they had both touched her heart.

The three of them went to the main room. They finally got there, without any drama in between. Everyone turned to look at the girl dressed as a guy, the clown of Konoha, and the guy every girl wanted. Izumi grinned. This would be an interesting wedding.

The ceremony started, it was a western ceremony. Naruto and Sasuke were the best men, along with Iruka; Izumi, Sakura, and the rest of her sisters were the Maid of Honors, even though there was only supposed to be one of each. The priest kept babbling on about holy matrimony and so on...Then, Kakashi kissed Saki, at which one of her sisters screamed "Woo!". Izumi laughed lightly at that and also screamed, "The old man's married!"

"Okay, we have a game for you!" said Saki through a microphone. "We're going to pick out an invitation of a girl and then one of a guy. Then, after all have been paired, they will dance to a slow song."

All of the girls started whispering and giggling, but the guys looked so bored, it made Izumi want to go to sleep. Most people were already chosen, except Choji, Naruto, Sasuke, Ino, Sakura, and Izumi. Sakura and Ino were glaring at each other, Naruto had heart eyes, Choji looked sheepish, Sasuke had his regular expression on, and Izumi was pretty much the same as Sasuke.

"Choji and Ino!" Ino put a disgusted face on at this announcement.

"Naruto and Sakura!" Sakura did the same as Ino, but added a small glare at Izumi.

"And last but not least, Sasuke and Izumi!" Izumi and Sasuke looked at each other sheepishly and Izumi blushed just a little. She felt as if every eye in the whole room was on them when she walked up to the dark-haired boy. Izumi put on a small, sweet smile, and Sasuke looked away in embarrassment but put out his hand for her to hold. The music started and people danced, except the couple everyone had been staring at. To Izumi's surprise, Sasuke had no idea how to dance. People snickered at them as Izumi tried to teach Sasuke, while laughing herself at his childish face as he sincerely tried to learn.

"My feet are gonna be all trampled after we're through with this," Izumi joked.

"Shut up," Sasuke replied, pouting.

Izumi laughed lightly and loosened her grip on his hand and shoulder when a faster song played. "Just let yourself go." After a few more tries, Sasuke said that he gives up and left. Izumi followed him, and grabbed his hand and tried to bring him back. But he wouldn't budge. He was staring at something. Izumi walked right in front of him and tried to look where he was looking. She stared directly at the person she truly didn't want to see right now.

She stared into the face of Itachi.


	5. Revenge

K9: Sorry to all of those who waited for this. I kinda had a hard time with school, and then you add on marching band and finding time to write stories just goes straight out the window. I'm really, really, really sorry you had to wait for this that long!!!

5

Revenge

A small flame of fear ignited in her heart. Itachi's cold eyes slowly met hers and she grabbed Sasuke's hand instinctively. He suddenly jerked his head to the side, looking behind him. Then, a person walked out from behind, with a smirk on her face. Izumi stared blindly into the face of Mitsuki, her sister. Her sister's red eyes gleamed dangerously and the two leaf-shaped marks seemed to dance beneath the corners of her eyes. But something about her sister was different, the eyes, no, the uniform, no, no, no, it was the hair; instead of its usual pitch black, it was a dark red, the color of dried blood.

"Hey, onee-san," Izumi whispered, barely audible to even Sasuke.

"Sup, sis!" she shouted back. Sasuke stared down at Izumi, she looked frail and was shaking. Her knees bent and the grip on his hand tightened.

"Come to finish what you started?" Izumi asked, faking a smile.

"Not at all, he dragged me here," Mistuki said, pointing at Itachi. Izumi straightened at this and stepped in front of Sasuke.

"Would you be kind enough to move?" asked Itachi.

"No, I'm sorry, but I can't move,"

"Oh no, don't tell me," Mistuki said while laughing, "you've fallen in love with a brat like him."

Izumi straightened and said, with dignity, "And what if I have." She felt Sasuke flinch a little behind her.

Her sister laughed. "You've know him for what? Two days? No, not even that long."

"And how would you know?" Izumi asked fiercely, venom in her mouth instead of saliva.

"Do you really think you managed to sneak in unnoticed?" she answered with her own question. "We've been following you since you left our camp, hoping you would lead us to your sister, and therefore her hubby. And if you managed to do that, Tachi-kun here told me we'd find his dear old brother."

"Ey! Sister-in-law! Come back here! You're missing all the fun!" Kakashi exclaimed as he entered the hallway they were in, after having a large fill of sake. When he saw who was in the hallway with them, his smile went away and with a serious face, he hiccuped. In any other situation, this would've been funny to Izumi, but at this time, all she could do was stare into her sister's eyes.

"Ha-kun!!!" Saki's voice echoed in the hallway. "Where are you?"

When she saw who was in the hallway, she too stopped smiling. "Mitsuki."

"Oh, hi sis! Congrats on your wedding, and I remember when we all thought that it was me who was gonna get married first," Mitsuki smiled.

"That was **before** you murdered my family, so I don't think that opinion is valid anymore," Saki calmly answered.

"Oh, I totally forgot about that. Ha, I guess I really don't make that distinction. I was on my own before, and I'm on my own now. Not much of a difference if you ask me," she spat out, with a smirk on her face.

"You bitch!" Izumi shouted, about to charge at Mitsuki. Sasuke grabbed her suddenly and held her where she was.

He got right behind her and put his lips to her ear. "Don't do anything rash. That's what they'll try to do, they'll play with your emotions and get you to do things that put your life in jeopardy."

His breath on her earlobe made her blush. It was soft, and hot, and his lips softly touched the skin on her ear, tickling her. "_This isn't the time to be thinking about things like that._" she mentally scolded herself. In answer to his comment, she merely nodded, and tried not to think about his lips on her ear, in vain.

He got closer to her body and put his hand around her waist, and in a mere two seconds, he managed to spin around, whisper "Sorry," and fling her into Saki. He activated his Sharingan and charged straight at Itachi. As he got closer, he raised his leg to kick him in the stomach, but Mitsuki stepped in front of Itachi and grabbed Sasuke's leg. Then, Sasuke aimed a punch that went right past Mitsuki and hit Itachi. Itachi grabbed his hand as it was pulling away and flung Sasuke into the wall to his left and out the temple.

"Sasuke!" shouted Sakura, who had just arrived at the scene. She rushed to help Sasuke, but Mitsuki blocked her way.

She slapped Sakura in the face so hard, that Sakura fell to the ground. "This is a fight between brothers,"-she shot a glance at Saki-"and sisters."

Saki accepted the challenge implied by her sister, and moved in an instance, leaving Izumi lying there. Izumi watched along with Sakura as the fights unraveled. Sasuke's and Itachi's fight was a flurry of kicks and blocks, and then a battle inside their minds, which Sasuke seemed to win, wearing Itachi out. Mitsuki's and Saki's fight was more of an intricate dance than a flurry. Fire met needles and wood, and kicks softly met blocks and with each successful hit, a smirk was seen. Suddenly, Saki hit Mitsuki with a force so powerful that she broke the tree she was hurled against. The fight between Itachi and Sasuke stopped.

Itachi's head was turned in the direction of Mitsuki, his eyes full of worry when she didn't get up. He rushed over to her and picked her up onto his lap.

"You let your guard down!" Sasuke shouted behind him. A lightning bolt of Chidori rushed toward Itachi. It all happened quickly, but she could see the smallest details. Sasuke looked on in triumph as the Chidori came toward his brother, until it hit the wrong person.

As the lightning came closer, Mitsuki threw Itachi off, and with great difficulty, stumbled in front of the attack. The blue flash hit her directly in the middle of her chest, and went all the way through her body, stopping after going all the way through. Itachi caught her on the way down. His head bowed as he held her in his arms. To everyone's surprise, as he looked up, tears were streaming down his face. A smile appeared on Mitsuki's face as she whispered something that was inaudible to Izumi. Mitsuki reached up to touch Itachi's face and then kissed him on the lips. Itachi then disappeared out of their view.

Watching this scene was too much for Izumi. "_Who knew she could be happy without us,"_ she thought. _"I guess there was no point in searching for her all these years."_ She rushed from the temple with tears streaming down her face, she wanted to go somewhere, and at the time it didn't really matter where. Even though she heard a voice behind her, she just kept going until the person whose voice it was grabbed her hand and spun her around. She stared into the face of a panting Sasuke. He stared straight into her eyes and seemed to be talking through them. "_What's wrong?"_ they asked, but he said something totally different.

"They'll be worried, let's go," he said, turning around back toward the city.

"Don't mess with me Sasuke," she shouted, swiveling him back to face her. "I know you're worried. Show some emotion at least sometimes!"

"I'm not-" he was cut off by the girl pulling him toward her. She pulled him down and hugged him, putting his head on the nape of her neck.

"I know your pain Sasuke," she told him. "You don't have to hide it. You don't have to pretend it's not there."

"I'm fine!" he shouted in response as he pulled away from her hug, a small hint of a blush on his cheeks. They were walking when they stepped on a small patch of ground that was a little bit unstable, and they fell into a pot-hole.

"God-dammit! It's a trap," Sasuke cursed under his breath. He tried to grab onto the earth with his chakra, but couldn't do it.

"There's no use in doing that," Izumi said in a calm voice. "It's a trap designed to keep the trapped from using chakra."

Sasuke cursed again and sat down in the small hole, his feet touching the other end of the hole and Izumi's backside.

"So, since we're stuck in here for quite a while," she said with a hint of laughter in her voice, "let's talk about those feelings you don't have, oh emotion-less one."

K9: Did you like it? I hope so, and I hope it fulfilled your waiting time...Well, I'll try to write the next chappie soon!!! (Somewhere between this week and next.) R&R!!!


	6. Dormant

6

Dormant

Morning became dusk, and dusk became night as the two sat in silence. The silent moon wavered over-head, only peeking at the two young adults sitting in a pot-hole when it could get around the clouds. The stars twinkled brightly in the sky, silent guardians that watch over the night.

"If I don't have feelings, how can I talk about them?" a deep asked the green-haired girl sitting across from him.

"Everyone has feelings, some just decide to hide them," the green-haired girl answered with a gleeful smile.

"An example?" he asked, leaning forward and putting his elbows on his knees.

"For instance, you," she responded. The boy snorted at this excuse for an answer. "A real example?"

"Again, I must bring up the example of you," she retorted, leaning forward just as he was at the moment. With both of the teens doing this, their faces almost touched in the small space they managed to fall into. They could both feel each other's breath on their mouths.

Sasuke snickered and leaned back onto the earthen wall behind him. "Are you sure about that?"

"Yes, undoubtedly sure," Izumi said as she did the same. Then, after letting out a sigh, her expression turned morbid and serious. "But Sasuke, I'm serious. You can tell me anything, anything that's been bothering you, anything at all. I want to know more about you."

He scoffed."You sure you just don't want to know more about the little unemotional boy who everyone is obsessed with, kinda like a gossip journalist?" he asked her, getting defensive. Izumi frowned and said, "I'm not that kind of girl, I thought you'd know that by now."

"By now?" he screamed. "I've known you for what? One day? Maybe two?"

"That doesn't matter!"

"The hell it does!" he shouted, standing up.

"Does that pink-haired girl know why you want to kill your brother? Does she know the constant anger inside of you? Does she know what you have experienced in the years after Itachi destroyed what had been your life?" she demanded.

"Do you?" his voice boomed.

"Yes! Don't forget that the same thing that happened to you happened to me!" she reminded him, moisture filling her eyes.

"No it didn't! What happened to you was different! She only killed your parents, not your whole clan. She didn't destroy your life!" he screamed, advancing on her, his voice louder with every word.

"My parents **were** my world! Sure, she didn't kill all the people I loved, only the most important ones. I'm sorry my childhood life wasn't as miserable as yours, but it still hurts you ass!"

Suddenly, tears burst from her eyes, and came streaming down her face like a raging river. "So don't you tell me, Uchiha Sasuke, that my whole world wasn't destroyed. Because it was!" she managed to shout out between sobs.

* * *

At this point, Sasuke didn't know what to do. He had long forgotten everything that had been taught to him about love, consumed by the anger and hate that developed for his brother a long time. This anger had been brought on by pain, and with all these negative emotions in him, he forgot to remember the most important thing in life: love.

Sasuke had always looked up to his brother, and therefore, he never gained any knowledge about love from him. All the males in his family, were the serious kind of people. That's what the Uchiha men were brought up to be. His mother had always tried to soften him, making him too soft for when the time came when his brother could no longer fill the needs of his father. Sasuke could still hear his father's voice, telling him that he wasn't good enough even though he was at the top of his class. Telling him that he could never be as good as his brother.

That's why Sasuke knew nothing of love. Sure, he had experienced it before, a mother's love, but he forgot it. It's human nature to forget things, emotions that one hasn't felt in a very long time. Even though Naruto and Sakura had begun the process of love, there was no use for friendship here, this feeling was different. Even the love for his parents that he could still remember as if it were a dream, paled in comparison to the feeling he experienced now.

This feeling was not completely foreign to him, for he had felt it once before, when Sakura had asked him to stay in Konoha. When her tears fell from her eyes, he wanted to protect her, to protect her heart. It was this feeling for the pink-haired kunoichi that had forced him to stay back then. But that feeling disappeared a long time ago, three years prior to this sudden resurfacing of the painfully wonderful feeling. This feeling, however was stronger, as if his feelings for Sakura had been just the tip of the iceberg. Again, there was an urge to protect, to hold, but there was also an urge to own, to keep for himself. It was like if he wanted her so badly, that he didn't want anyone else to have it. No, it wasn't just "like" that, that's exactly what that was.

With this figured out, he reached out a hand, and put it on the side of her face. At first, he felt her flinch away, but then she seemed to have settled into the warmth of his hand. His thumb gently wiped the tears away from her eyes, and he repeated the action with his other hand. Gently, he pulled her pale face forward with both hands, into his muscled chest. It all seemed to flow naturally from his brain, these ideas that he was fulfilling, and with each heartbeat, he could feel the flutter of those small, annoying butterflies on his stomach. He put his arms around her neck and shoulders, as this was all he could reach without squatting down, and pressed her face further into his chest. He liked this feeling. The feeling of his heart beating like a sprinting cheetah's, and the squeezing of his stomach muscles. Most of all, though, he liked the feeling of her breath on his chest and the closeness the hug brought.

* * *

Izumi couldn't quite understand what had happened. First, she was crying, and then, she was in a tight embrace with Sasuke. She couldn't quite make sense of it. Why would he hug her? Actually, a better question was why would he hug anyone? He was Sasuke, for goodness sake! And though she had known him for two days, she could tell he wasn't the type to do something like this. She knew he wasn't the type to go around hugging people just because they were sad. Sasuke was a closed up little hermit crab, a little soul living inside its personal shell behind the walls of skin. She smiled a little within the embrace, and hugged him back.

With her weight on him, they slowly slid down the mud wall. He sat there, with his leg open, and she lay there, on his chest, her body in between his legs.

They both would've noticed that they were in a very awkward position, if it mattered. They both would've noticed that there was the dark silhouette of a search-nin standing above them, if they had bothered to look up. And they both would've noticed the fact that it had started to rain, if they were uncomfortable. But they weren't. They were both quite content in their hug, not noticing anything but themselves, and warm from the body heat they each gave off to each other.

"Sasuke. I've actually wanted to ask you something for quite a while now."

When all she got for an answer for silence, she uttered his name once more, and when she got silence as a reply the second time, she looked up. There she saw the sharp features of the boy's face. No matter how hard she tried to think of him as a man, and no matter how grown up he looked, all she could see right now was an innocent boy somewhere far away. Maybe he was dreaming of pirate ships, or maybe fields of flowers with flying purple hippos, or maybe it was his childhood that he wanted to go back to. Who knows? Thinking of the possible dreams Sasuke could possibly be having right now, she went off into her own dream-land.

And sure enough, she saw a meadow of tall sunflowers, and purple hippos that soared in the air, and the most important person to her right now:

Sasuke.

* * *

The slow and lazy morning sun shone in the sky. Its rays illuminated the two faces next to each other in a ditch. Sasuke was the first to wake, and of course the first to recognize the awkwardness of the position he and Izumi were in. Slowly, he got up from underneath the girl, and stretched like a cat after a nap. For the first time in the last 24-hour period, he felt strong again, not limited by the earth and all of its rules, and as he put his hand onto the wall of the small pot-hole, he understood why. The trap was off. He smirked, it was probably a badly built one that turned off after only a day or two. They were quite lucky it was only a day, or else they probably would be eating the dirt by the tomorrow morning.

Gently, he shook the young girl until she was awake.

"I don't wanna get up!" she yelled in her morning stupor. "I wanna watch the flying hippos some more!"

Sasuke couldn't help, but slightly laugh at the seriousness in which she said these two ridiculous lines. "I'm sorry, Izumi, but its time to get back to the real world now."

Slowly, but surely, her eyes opened and revealed light pink pupils, almost the shade of Sakura's hair. At first, she looked at him as if she was just done drinking a whole bottle of sake, but then, she got up, yawned and asked, "What's for breakfast Sasuke?"

Once again, he couldn't stifle the laughter that escaped his lips. "Ramen."

"Ramen, where the hell are we gonna get ramen?"

"At the little stand that Naruto so often frequents," he said, a slight hint of amusement in his voice.

"And how exactly are we going to get to this stand?" she asked skeptically.

"Oh, quite easily, actually,"

"Mm, pray tell,"

"You see, you're going to take my hand," he explained as he took her hand into his, "and then, we're going to jump out of this trap." As he finished, he pushed all of his chakra into his feet, and jumped right out of the hole they had been trapped in. Izumi's face was priceless, amazement written on every inch of it.

"How-How did you-?"

"The trap was probably turned off after yesterday," he cut her off. Not letting go of her hand, he led the way into town.

Soon after they arrived at Izumi's house, they had to leave once more, having found an urgent note on her doorstep. It read, "You must immediately come to the Hokage's office. Now!"

Both Izumi and Sasuke raced to get there, rushing in to find Sakura, Naruto, and Kakashi all already there.

"Good, everyone's here," said Saki. "I have a mission for you. It's a search and investigate mission. We-"

"What are we going to investigate?" Sakura chimed in.

"Patience. I was just getting to that Sakura," the Hokage said, glaring at poor Sakura. "You see, not long ago, we found another headquarters of the Akatsuki. Since we hadn't managed to kill all of them, we still need their information, and that's where you guys come in. You will see if you can find any information down there. Even though it's probably deserted, there will be one difficulty: the headquarters are underwater, at the very bottom of the ocean."

"That shouldn't be hard!" Naruto yelled in encouragement. As they all left to pack for the mission, Sakura noticed something.

"Eh, Kakashi-san. Aren't you going to come?" she asked, turning her head to face him. Kakashi shook his head no, and smiled underneath his mask.

"This is something you guys will have to do on your own. I have some business to attend to," he replied.

Now unsure of their ability to fulfill the mission without their teacher, they made their way to their rooms to pack.

* * *

K9: Told ya I'd have it up soon! Ha! I actually did it this time. As you can see, this is not the end. I was actually thinking of ending it this chapter, but I thought I'd play around with their feelings some more, you know for fun...

Well, thanks for reading, and please R&R!!!


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